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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to test instruments, and more particularly, to a portable telecommunication test set with a built-in web browser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephone communication has seen a phenomenal growth since its inception because of its extreme usefulness in today""s world. It is hard, and almost impossible, to conceive of a world without telephones. Many people would say that telephones have become an integral part of a civilized society. Telephone communications typically take place over the traditional pair of copper conductors which form telephone lines. However, a number of different xe2x80x9cnon-traditionalxe2x80x9d transmission media, such as fiber optic cables, microwave links (in satellite communication), terrestrial radio links (in wireless communication), etc, are increasingly being employed to accommodate burgeoning telephone traffic world-wide. In any event, traditional telephone lines of a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) or a POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) still play major roles as primary telephone transmission media for a large number of telephone calls. Further, a significant number of telephone calls placed over so-called xe2x80x9cnon-traditionalxe2x80x9d transmission media still end up utilizing these telephone lines as secondary transmission media for call completion. Modern computers with data transmission capabilities also frequently use the telephone lines supported by the PSTN (or POTS) for data communication with remote destinations.
A telephone subscriber""s telephone line typically terminates at a local switching facility or local office in the telephone service provider""s network. Two or more local offices may be connected to a central switching facility via additional telephone lines to allow inter-office telephone communication. A telephone xe2x80x9csubscriber""s loopxe2x80x9d may normally consist of the subscriber""s telephone unit, the telephone line between the subscriber""s unit and the local office and a circuit at the local switching facility to supply battery current (to the subscriber""s telephone unit), signaling current (over the telephone line) and a means of connecting the subscriber""s telephone line to a switching unit within the local switching facility. To facilitate a two-way telephone communication over the subscriber""s loop, it is necessary to maintain each subscriber""s telephone line as well as other circuit elements fault-free.
Maintenance, monitoring and troubleshooting of a telephone line is performed by a lineman or network technician employed by the telephone service provider. The technician may carry a hand-held butt set or test set 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 to test the telephone line for proper ringing signals, dial tone reception, noise level, etc. The butt set 10 is normally attached to the telephone line being tested with a pair of alligator or bed-of-nails clips (not shown) provided as part of the butt set 10 and extending from a housing 12. The housing 12 has a keypad 14 with buttons quite similar to those on a telephone unit to enable the technician to dial a telephone number or to enter specific digits, e.g., to check whether the telephone line carries dialed signals or to place a phone call. The housing 12 may have a built-in speaker unit (not shown) that may be activated with the SPK button on the keypad 14 so that the technician may listen to various tones, noise and other signals over the telephone line hands-free. The LNR button on the keypad 14 allows for a xe2x80x9cLast Number Redialxe2x80x9d function. The DAT button on the keypad 14 may be pressed to override data lockout capability, which refers to a capability of the test set 10 to alert the technician when there is a danger of inadvertently disrupting data flowing over the telephone line, such as when the test set 10 is attached to the telephone line and the technician attempts to switch the line from data mode to talk mode.
Upon finding a faulty telephone line, the technician may need to refer to additional information, e.g., cable records pertaining to a given telephone line or any line-specific circuit details. One disadvantage with the prior art butt set 10 is that the technician may not retrieve the requisite data from the butt set 10 while in the field. If the technician wants the desired information while in the field, the technician may need to contact either another technician who is knowledgeable about the given line configuration or the technician""s home office where someone can find the needed information. When a technician is dependent on others for information retrieval, there will typically be a greater delay in obtaining the needed information. Such a delay may affect performance efficiency and project execution timing for a given maintenance or troubleshooting project and may not be desirable, especially when labor costs need to be contained.
It is therefore desirable to have a multi-functional, hand-held butt set or a similar portable telecommunication test set that is capable of storing telephone line-specific data and circuit information so as to enable a technician to obtain requisite information while in the field. It is further desirable that the test set or the butt set be capable of accessing a remote information server from the field location if additional information is desired by the technician.
The present invention contemplates a portable telecommunication test set comprising a housing having located therein a processing unit; a testing module coupled to said processing unit, wherein the testing module is configured to receive a first indication from the processing unit and to responsively initiate one or more test operations for a telecommunication entity; and a web browser module coupled to said processing unit, wherein the web browser module is configured to receive a second indication from the processing unit and to responsively initiate data communication between said web browser module and a source of information located external to the portable telecommunication test set. The portable telecommunication test set may include a telephone line butt set, a protocol analyzer, a communications analyzer, etc.
In addition to routine telecommunication test circuits and/or circuits for telephone functionality, the test set of the present invention, e.g., a butt set, may incorporate a standard HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) browser within it. The inclusion of a web browser within a telecommunication test set allows a network technician to access the Internet as well as other remotely-located sources of information to retrieve data and other useful technical information while in the field for communication network or telephone line maintenance, troubleshooting or repair. The remotely-located source of information may be a computer server or other test equipment similar to the test set according to the present invention. The portable test set, e.g., the butt set, may contain memory to locally store certain technical information, e.g., telephone line-specific data or circuit information, that may be retrieved and xe2x80x9creadxe2x80x9d by the built-in web browser module when prompted by the network technician.
The portable test set may be provided with a display screen on the housing for the test set to display the content of the information retrieved from a remotely-located source of information. The web browser module may convert the received information into a user-understandable format prior to its display on the display screen. A keyboard or keypad may also be provided on the housing to allow the network technician to enter one or more commands therewith, e.g., for performing a test operation or for initiating a data retrieval operation using the web browser.
In one embodiment, the butt set according to the present invention includes a data modem within its housing to allow the web browser module to dial into a remote wireline network, e.g., the Internet, to retrieve data from the external source of information. In an alternative embodiment, the housing of the butt set includes a wireless modem and an RF (radio frequency) communication unit (including an RF transceiver unit and an RF antenna unit) to facilitate data communication between the butt set and the external source of information via a wireless network, e.g., a cellular telephone network.
The present invention imparts flexibility to the network technician while in the field. Because the present invention allows for the expeditious availability of needed test and circuit data, the performance efficiency of the network technician is advantageously improved. A further advantage of the present invention is that a web browser provides a generic or standardized information interface for the test set because it dispenses with the need to have proprietary formats for information retrieval, storage and display. For a butt set, the line-specific (as well as manufacturer-specific) test information need not be in a manufacturer-dictated proprietary format, but, instead, may be in a generally available text format, e.g., the HTML format or the WML (Wireless Mark-up Language) format. This allows for creation of a more generic test set because of reliance on the data available in a universal format, instead of a proprietary format. Testing-related data may be supplied (as hardware or software plug-in modules) by a vendor other than the manufacturer of the test set. These and other advantages and benefits of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the embodiments below.